Some Manchester City supporters have brought up their owners' investment in the community to excuse their football finance rule breaking but that hasn't cut Stoke City's owners any slack - and nor would they expect it
Manchester City and Stoke City directors in the royal box at Wembley Stadium as Man City lift the FA Cup trophy in 2011.
Stoke City lost the FA Cup final to Manchester City in 2011(Image: Richard Heathcote - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
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There seem to be two main Stoke City-related angles to the Manchester City saga. Firstly, they were beaten by Man City in the 2011 FA Cup final which started the latter’s dominance of domestic competitions for the next 15 years. Secondly, Stoke are also owned by billionaires – but their billionaires have been hamstrung by the rules which been run roughshod over by Man City.
It’s not that Stoke’s board has liked FFP or PSR or SCR or even that they have been holier than thou about the principles. They have lobbied vigorously for change and hired some of the brainiest sports lawyers in the business to make sure they can squeeze every penny from staying on the right side of the line – to the point that, in the spring of 2021, the club sold the bet365 Stadium to bet365, which was basically its parent company.
They weren’t the first to do that and Derby County came a cropper for inflating the market value of Pride Park when it was bought by owner Mel Morris. Other jiggery-pokery or creative thinking has seen Birmingham City and Aston Villa sell their women’s teams to their owners or Newcastle United having to sell academy graduate Elliot Anderson because he was an academy product who made “pure profit” on the balance sheet.
It has seemed like more and more clubs have been trying to find more and more cheeky but legal ways to keep up with the Joneses. There are Championship clubs trying to keep up with yo-yo clubs, who are trying to keep up with the top flight mainstays, who are chasing the Europe hunters, who are trying to hang onto the coattails of the trophy hoarders.
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Except it turns out the one at the top has been skewing everything because they were sneakily dipping into a extra £900m or thereabouts to get further and further ahead. The transfer market, wage budgets and the gaps between rankings have been turbocharged by Man City’s near-limitless spending power.
It is true, as some Man City fans have not tired of pointing out, that spending power has also been used to help regenerate East Manchester. It is an area reborn, as Robert Huth spoke about to The Sentinel last week. It is sad if philanthropy comes with a threat of pulling the plug unless there is special treatment. The Telegraph reports that the United Arab Emirates has warned the UK Government that bilateral investments could be cancelled if Man City are punished for being found guilty.
We are in danger of slipping into a Dickens novel comparing good and bad rich people but bear with us.
The Coates family behind Stoke City have faced criticism for making money through gambling just as oil money from the Emirates doesn’t often get a positive press. The Coates have also been among the UK’s leading taxpayers while doing so, staying loyal to the Potteries to create thousands of good jobs and putting money into everything from theatre to hospice care.
That hasn’t prevented chairman John Coates from an earbashing when results have been poor but some Stoke supporters on social media have been suggesting that it is unlikely they would pull that money out of the community if the EFL didn’t let them cook the books.
One post that went viral, from FPL Potter, said: “The Coates family are worth billions, yet throughout their ownership of Stoke City we've still had to operate within the same rules as everyone else.
“They've invested hugely in Stoke-on-Trent, creating jobs through bet365 and contributing millions to local charities, education and the NHS. But none of that gives them, or anyone else, a free pass on football's financial regulations.
“If the allegations against Man City are proven, the ramifications are enormous. The damage done to the integrity of the game would be immeasurable. Yet all we seem to hear is denial and deflection.”
Stoke’s chief operating officer Simon King was asked about balancing principles and financial demands in an hour-long interview for the Potters Pod podcast this week. The overriding tone was that it was hard and often frustrating to stay on the right side of the rules when you’ve got the money to do what you want - but that didn't mean there was another option.
Man City are going to have to jump through hoops to convince anyone that there was.
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